The End Of Ramadan

We sat in the tent 's shadow, with our , faces tumed tóward Cairo. Thero wero three of us, the shcik of the neightor: ing village, Ahmed and 1. The clear ! outline of the Mokbattan hills was bid, den in the thick mist generated by the j heat; the city was a gray blur astainst j the black sides of the uplands. Below i ns, amid the sugar cane, the fellahin worked with an affectation of energy. Í Sometirnes a voice came to us mellowed i by distance; soraetimes the sail of a j vessel glided phantomwise over the blue ribbon of water that twined along the valley toward Alexandria and the delta. A month before 1 had seen the messengers leave the city and strike into i the desert. Twenty-four hours later, ! dnsty and hot, they retmned, bearing ! news. The new raoon had appeared, and the fast was pvoclaimed. At nridi night a gun boomed from the citadel, ! and suddenly the merry noises of the i 6treets were stilled. Next day 1 wandered thvough the bazaars, but received no invitation to ' drink corlee with rny friends. Pipes and ! cigarettes were not offered to me. A kind of half sleep had fallen on everybody, and 1 hardly dared speak to any one. In the intervals bet ween their bargainings the inerchantsread the Koran orprayed.counting their beads with I nimble fingers, head bent downward. ! The bargainings, too, were a poor shadow of the esciting scènes 1 loved. The purchaser was always languid and the vender inert, uninterested. As the afternoon wore on a look of j fatigue, often of real pain, gloomed on I the usually genial faces. ít was hot, ! so hot. The san beat furiously on the white walls and roads; the cruel Kempion whirled the dust through the streets and dried the skin and lips. But the cry of the water carrier was not raised ; no boys ofïered bunches of juicy fruit to the sufferers. Ramadan bad come with all its terrors, and for the love of God and his apostle must they be borne, if not cheerfully, at any rate sternly and manfully. One hour before sunset life seetned to stir again in the veins. The bakeries were crowded; the fires blazed under the ovens; a smell of cooking stole over the city. Women squatted at intervals along the streets with cakes and frnit and bottles of water spread before them. Little groups gathered round them, inipatient, expectant. The smokers took out their pipes or cigareties and stood waiting for the signal, maten in hand. Suddenly the sun feil, and the gun thundered from the citadel. The city awoke; the population began to eat; the women were busy disposing of their goods. For 40 days these things were, and now was come the closing day of the tast, and I sat with my friends on the sand, gazing toward the citadel till the gun showed fire for the last time. All the afternoon envious glances had been cast at me as I cheerfully disobeyed the prophet's orders. Ahmed, 1 think, had the sheik not been with me, would have smoked a cigarette, but as it was he lay beside me and sulked. The sheik was too oíd to behave thus. He was quiet and spoke slowly, but he tried bravely to conceal all signs of discoinfort. Ahmed's annoyance may be i accounted for in this way. He declared to me that Mohammed fasted one day in i the month Ramadan, but on which dy was uncertaro, and therefore the thei ologians decreed a 40 days' fast that they might be sure of fasting the same day as the prophet. I do not think Ahmed believes this legend, though he vouches vehemently for it3 truth. To while away the time I asked the sheik to teil me about the visit of the czarowitz. But the long abstinence made him unabie to talk at any length, and even this his favorite story he told me briefly iu a couple of bald sentences, though he responded gently: "1 met him as one prince rneets another. He told me he owned many villages; that he was sheik over half the world. It may be as they havo said. " "And what did he say to you?" 1 queried. "He greeted me courteously and took me by the hand. This ring that I wear is his gift." As he spoke he showed me, without pride, a sapphire of great size and beauty. Then he relapsed into silence, and 1 amused myself by pictnring the event in my mind. I would that I had seen that meeting between the heir of the holy Russian empire and the simple Arab chief. Looking into his grave gray eyes and at his tall, slight figure, thebroadshonldersnot yet bent, though the white beard he was stroking told of many years of life, and in spite of his tattered blue robe, I easily conceived how he had been treated - courteously as became a prince. Before the setting sun touched the horizon a bo}' from the village brought a large plate of food and a bottle of water and set them before ns. ' 'The' signal, " 1 cried as a white puft of smoke rolled away f rom thecitadal walls, and at the same instant the sun sank behind the desert. The sheik s.ized the bottle of water and drank long and eagerly. When his thirst was a'ppeased, he belched loutlly and handed the bottle to Ahmed, who drank eageriy, too, not omitting the curious afcer graco. Then they devoured the food voraciously, the oUt man beckoning me to join. After we had ?aten we sat and talked Har into the night under the golden stars. The distant city gleamed fairylike with myriad lanaps, and the murmur of its thousand voices came to us throngh the silent air. Ramadan was dead. The fast was